Marketers continue to struggle to assess the effectiveness of their omnichannel campaigns due to disconnects in strategies for reaching consumers and a failure to create insights from the huge swathes of data they are gathering.
So says Kantar’s latest annual state of marketing study, Getting Media Right, which claims these issues mean many marketers are missing opportunities for growth, with 40% still using ROI measurement approaches that are primarily focused on short term-sales. This, despite an overwhelming majority of respondents, 85%, saying that the most important approach to ROI is a blend of both short and long-term measures.
Now in its fifth year, Getting Media Right examines the current state of marketing in a connected world and is based on input from 468 senior marketers spanning advertiser brands, media companies and agencies globally.
It reveals an industry that continues to diversify its media usage and increasingly requires better understanding of how ideas, content and media need to be activated in tandem to create holistic marketing that drives brand growth.
While confidence has grown from last year, less than half of advertisers are sure of their ability to create insights from data. Even within agencies and media, fewer than 20% are very confident, indicating the industry is struggling to manage all the data that is available.
Creating insights is dependent upon pulling together the right information and tools to monitor and optimise campaigns, yet marketers are struggling to connect the dots on performance across channels. Some 78% strongly or somewhat agree that it is difficult to assess how well brands perform across channels.
With this in mind, 47% of marketers say they have moved the optimisation process up earlier in their campaigns than they were doing last year, with most now starting in the ideas and strategy phase. Female marketers are leading the charge on earlier optimisation, with 50% indicating it has moved earlier in the campaign lifecycle (vs. 44% of male marketers).
Advertiser confidence in their media mix has grown slightly from last year, but 45% are still not confident that their organisation has the optimal media mix, of which only 13% say they have very integrated media strategies.
“Marketers should aim for the best of all worlds: they need to create a framework to monitor impact on business and brand metrics while harmonising measurement tools and insights to improve performance across all channels. The report is a clear indication that marketers are continuing to struggle with measuring and proving ROI, primarily due to their approach,” said Jane Ostler, global head of media at Kantar’s Insights Division.
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